Open Design Blog

Open Design: A Small Community of Powerful Ideas

The third Open Design project is gearing up! This project will show you RPG design tricks by designing a 128-page game book. In addition, the Open Design format shows you professional game design from the inside.

The project itself is chosen by the patrons who donate and support the work: your donation supports either the "Empire of the Ghouls" underdark adventure or the "City-State of Zobeck" steam & sorcery city book.


What's Open Design?
I'm returning to an old, old model for writers with the next adventure I write: patronage. In the medieval age and in the Renaissance, patrons were the ones who commissioned artists and writers. There was no such thing as a "publisher". People who wanted books paid someone directly to write them.

The OpenDesign projects are about applying that strategy to RPG adventures. They use a publishing approach that avoids the pitfalls of corporate game development, and they provide a way to share design knowledge with interested gamers.

What are the Zobeck and Ghouls projects?
You can support either of these two projects with your donation.

The City-State of Zobeck: All Levels of Play
A regional and magic sourcebook for the Free City of Zobeck first described in “Steam & Brass”. The usual NPCs, adventure hooks, and major locations are just a small slice of the setting. A big section focuses on rules for things that make Zobeck unique, such as the star & shadow school of magic, clockwork magic, and rules for kobold and skinshifter PCs. We'll discuss CR ratings, spell balance, and setting logic.
The campaign section describes the local pantheon and provides a regional gazetteer that outlines the giant-dominated cities of Nordheim, the elven River Court, the trading hubs of the Seven Cities, the dwarven stronghold of Bernau, the necropolitans of Morgau & Doresh, and the magocracy of Allain. Includes a two-page city map and a full-page regional map showing trade routes, cities, and kingdoms.
Because I love monsters, it includes 10 new ones: the lorelei, cave and lightning dragons, new clockwork creatures, plus one or two from prior Open Designs.
At roughly 70,000 words with complex mechanical design and worldbuilding, "City-State" will take five or six months to write. It is loaded with plug-and-play pieces for any campaign.

The Empire of the Ghouls: Suggested Levels 8-12
This Underdark adventure pits the party against a civilization of intelligent, shadow-powered, hideously strong ghouls who dominate the Underdark and have enslaved gnomes, dwarves, and even the drow. They are now ready to seize a city of cloakers, a place of hanging stalagtites and elder cloakers who control an ancient artifact. If the ghouls seize it, their power will double, and shadow-walking assassins will soon become commonplace on the surface world. The party must enter the Underdark and destroy the ghoul empire at its heart.
Probably at least 60,000 words long, "Empire" will take a minimum five months to write.


Who are you?
My name is Wolfgang Baur. I've been professionally involved in the RPG field for 15 years, starting at TSR and later at WotC. I've written for every major D&D setting, though I'm best known for things like Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, Forge of War, Frostburn, Planes of Law, the Book of Roguish Luck, Assassin Mountain, "A Rose for Talakara", and adventure design in general.

I've written about 12 adventures for Dungeon magazine, and used to be its editor. I'll do all the writing, organizing, and scut-work. You just decide what you'd like to see in the adventure.


How many patrons will there be?
I need about 100 patrons to commission the work. Since there's no retailer, no publisher, no distributor, and no print costs, even a tiny audience makes it worthwhile to design exclusively for patrons.

What do I get?
You'd get the complete adventure written to your instructions regarding level, monsters, etc. For instance, the first adventure title and concept will be chosen by the people who sign up, as will many other adventure details.

It will be professionally laid out and available both as a PDF and as a paper POD book. Please review the final vote results and join today!

Yes, Open Design is trying to do something different. I hope you join the small community that's supporting original and amazing design, right here.

Read the complete post at http://customadventure.livejournal.com/78986.html